Spectacular Whimsy

Patience, dedication, determination. Ultimate Folly.
Awe-inspiring.

Antoni Gaudi
Sagrada Familia
Barcelona, Spain
Construction commenced in 1884
Art Nouveau has the most arcane effect when committed to church architecture. One of the many buildings of this genre designed and built by Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona. The Cathedral was begun in 1884. Work on this spectacular building has been ongoing ever since. It remains, to the present, uncompleted.
The four striking towers were only completed after Gaudi's death.
This building is representative of the most highly imaginatively-designed church in the last century. It transcends any influence which might have been derived from the international Art Nouveau movement, and intimates the Expressionist movement in twentieth-Century architecture.

This is a veritable monument to the powers that reside above, to the compulsive belief of a man captivated by images of nature who used his classical training in architecture to develop his own idiosyncratic style, incorporating Nature and all her flora and fauna, as though the designer of this ultimate fancy equated Nature herself with the Heavenly Host and with God Himself.

It is a marvel of unstinting fantasy and it is a glory to behold.

Photographs: J.S. Rosenfeld, 2010